[Open-Legislation] openlaws.eu EU Project starting today

[Clemens Wass]

Thank you for your comments!

@Eric: We have our internal kick-off meeting in two weeks at the University
of Amsterdam. We will set up the project management there. I am sure we
will have a github link soon. Looking forward to your support!

@Jörn: Agree - this is certainly a problem with preliminary solutions and
we also had controversial internal discussions on this Google custom
search. But then we ended up at the users' point of view and they are
really happy to use this solution right now as an alternative to national
database interfaces. This is not to praise Google, it simply shows that a
lot can be done on a member state level when it comes to legal databases. I
have worked as a legal in-house counsel but are still sometimes struggling
with the national databases (in my case Austria, and this should not be the
worst system, since it has won some awards in the past years). So let's try
to come up with a solution that is open and much better than Google. I will
be happy to shut this preliminary tool down as soon as possible when we
have an alternative! The more we work together, the sooner this will be!

All the best,

Clemens






2014-04-02 22:04 GMT+02:00 Jörn Erbguth <joern at erbguth.net>:

> Dear Clemens,
>
> I tend to agree - criticizing that not everything is based on open
> standards since day 1 seems a bit hypercritic.
>
> However preliminary solutions tend to persist and I know more than one
> project that claimed to be open but in fact stuck to at first preliminary
> proprietary solutions till the end. I think that Eriks mail could serve you
> as a good reminder not to do that.
>
>
>
> Good luck with your project!
>
>
>
> Best regards
>
>
>
> Jörn
>
>
>
> *Von:* open-legislation [mailto:open-legislation-bounces at lists.okfn.org] *Im
> Auftrag von *Clemens Wass
> *Gesendet:* Mittwoch, 2. April 2014 21:59
> *An:* JOSEFSSON Erik
> *Cc:* open-legislation
> *Betreff:* Re: [Open-Legislation] openlaws.eu EU Project starting today
>
>
>
> Dear Erik,
>
>
>
> what is your point?
>
>
>
> I understand that you get angry by reading the word Google. I agree that
> Google is NOT the solution. What we do is to provide a Google Custom Search
> for a few selected legal domains as a quick and - in your eyes VERY - dirty
> solution FOR THE BEGINNING. I would prefer to have a solar/lucene/nutch
> solution running by today that has built a huge index already. But this is
> day 2.
>
> I know many legal experts who are using Google because the search
> capabilities of the national database are not sufficient. They teach that
> even at university in legal research courses. Is your suggestion to take
> that search down immediately?
>
>
>
> Regarding licenses: Again, this is day 2. We have no software yet. We have
> not defined yet which tools we will use for building the platform. The
> software will be licensed accordingly under an open source license. I am
> sorry I cannot say more at the moment, but why do you doubt that?
>
>
>
> We are trying to build a system based on open source software, open
> innovation and open data. What is wrong with that?
>
>
>
> There has not a lot been going on on this mailing list since quite a while
> and I think this a positive signal for open legislation. I hope that there
> will be a productive discussion and all suggestions are highly welcome.
>
>
>
> So Eric, what are your suggestions?
>
>
>
> Best, Clemens
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 2014-04-02 21:17 GMT+02:00 JOSEFSSON Erik <
> erik.josefsson at europarl.europa.eu>:
>
> Congratulations to a dead born baby*.
>
>
>
> There is no information **whatsoever** on the website on which licence
> you release source code under, if at all.
>
>
>
> There is a confident reference to the Commission's "Open Innovation 2.0"
> which according to its own website is " "a mash-up of ideas into action to
> make things happen".
>
>
>
> Good luck.
>
>
>
> //Erik
>
>
>
> * Please note that during our start-up phase we are currently using a
> Google Custom Search engine for the meta search. As the project evolves, we
> will integrate more "open" solutions.
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* open-legislation [mailto:open-legislation-bounces at lists.okfn.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Clemens Wass
> *Sent:* 01 April 2014 15:10
> *To:* open-legislation
> *Subject:* [Open-Legislation] openlaws.eu EU Project starting today
>
>
>
> Dear all,
>
>
>
> today is the official starting date for the openlaws.eu project, an EU
> Project funded by DG Justice.
>
>
>
> The project is about making legislation and case law more accessible for
> citizens, businesses, legal experts and also public bodies and legal
> publishers. The project is built on open data, open innovation principles
> and open source software.
>
> The initial term for the project is 24 months. It was ranked #1 by DG
> Justice, so expectations are certainly high! Hopefully we will see the
> first results soon!
>
>
>
> Have a look at the openlaws.eu website for more details (www.openlaws.eu)
> and follow the project on twitter (https://twitter.com/openlaws,
> @openlaws). Comments and ideas are highly welcome!
>
>
>
> Best,
>
>
>
> Clemens
>
>
>
> PS: This is not an April Fools' Day joke - law IS finally opening up!
>
>
>
>
>
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